


dance anthem of the 80s

by emojongin (virgorani)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Highschool AU, M/M, Not really though, diner au, i dont know what this is, i have no clue how to format it was supposed to look better than this but whatever, you can tell i dont know how diners work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 17:43:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6866617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virgorani/pseuds/emojongin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Diner!au where Sehun works late-ish shifts with Kyungsoo. One night Jongin walks in and changes everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dance anthem of the 80s

Sehun wipes off the last table in the neon-lit diner just as a familiar-looking young man in a leather jacket and slicked-back hair stalks in. He greets the boy with a kind welcome and finishes cleaning the table before going into the back room to find his co-worker, Kyungsoo. The older boy comes out a minute later, rubbing his tired eyes and reluctantly taking his position behind the cash register. The customer eyes the two workers’ exchange curiously.

Sehun listens to the deep, mumbling sound of the teen ordering through the door of the break room as he carefully takes off his apron and hangs it neatly. Picking up his belongings, he says goodbye to his fellow workers and takes his exit. He doesn’t think much of the boy, or work at all, for the next couple of days.

The next time he sees the boy, Sehun is working the cash register on a Friday night. The boy is dressed in a similar outfit to when Sehun first saw him, but now has a group of teenagers surrounding him as he fiddles with the diner’s jukebox. The gathering of schoolkids has now surrounded the boy, blocking him from Sehun’s line of sight. He sighs, thinking of the mess he would have to eventually clean up after the group leaves. He peers past the heads of boys and girls he recognizes from school, only to see that the boy has seemingly decided on a tune to play. With interest, Sehun gazes as the boy begins to pick up the beat. He moves his feet and starts to dance.

_You are so sweet_

_Dancing and moving to that beat_

Sehun flushes as he feels the passion and energy rippling off of the young man, who has begun to dance with style and ease through the noisy circle of friends, his audience. He has a lopsided grin painted across his face when he looks up and makes eye contact with Sehun. The cashier shyly looks down, as the dancer’s friends follow his line of sight, staring at Sehun with disinterest. Sehun ignores the impromptu performance for the rest of its duration.

Hours later, after most of the crowd has dissipated, Sehun meets the dancing boy once again, who stretches his tanned arm out towards him.

“Hi, I’m Jongin,” the boy introduces.

“Welcome to the EXO Diner, may I take your order?” Sehun stares confusedly at the hand in front of him.

Jongin cackles and retracts his arm, instead leaning closer over the counter to peer at Sehun’s name tag. Sehun shudders and tilts himself back at the sudden movement.

“Sehun?” He looks up at the cashier with the same curiosity Sehun had seen the first time he came in. Sehun nods, wary of Jongin’s unexpected forwardness.

“May I take your order, sir?” Sehun repeats, feeling uncomfortable with the way Jongin is trying to look directly into his eyes, as if searching for some type of reaction. He notes how Jongin’s face slightly falls, then picks up again, wild eyes and smile reappearing.

“No thanks. See you later, Sehun!” He calls as he walks out of the diner without eating anything. Sehun watches a few other tall boys follow him out into the cool spring night. He stands for a few minutes, trying to recollect what had just happened. He eventually shakes off whatever questions he had and goes to switch off the bright red buzzing of the “OPEN” sign in the window.

Jongin returns to the diner the next day, this time only accompanied by the same few boys Sehun had seen tailing him the previous night. Sehun can’t help but stare at the way they’re messing around, stealing french fries from each other and laughing loudly. He sees Jongin shove a fry into his mouth with a wide smile, throwing his arm around his friend. He looks up and just barely catches Sehun’s eyes. Sehun feels his face heating up and rushes into the break room to force Kyungsoo into covering the register. He sends the older male stumbling out with furrowed eyebrows and annoyance etched all over his face, angrily muttering something about the younger’s inopportune bathroom breaks. Sehun apologizes quickly and shuts himself into the restroom. He turns on the lights and stares at the slight blush dusted over his cheeks.

_There's a meat market down the street_

_The boys and the girls watch each other eat_

The first time Sehun and Jongin meet outside of the diner is in their school’s cafeteria. Jongin slips him a small “hey,” and struts off to sit with his usual companions. Sehun tries to discreetly cover the blooming pink on his skin from Kyungsoo when he looks over in surprise.

For the next couple of days Sehun spends lunch alone in the back of the library right next to the human psychology textbooks, hoping to avoid Jongin and his bright smile. On his third day in the library hiding from Jongin, said boy walks in and spots Sehun almost immediately. Sehun pales as Jongin begins to head in his direction and opens up the first book he sees, hoping that Jongin will see that he is busy and leave him alone.

“The Psychology of Attraction, huh?” Jongin says with a smirk, arm reaching up to rest on the top of the bookshelf as he leans to the side to look at Sehun’s face.

“Sorry?” Sehun asks, eyes widening as Jongin takes the book out of his hands and shoves it onto a random place on the bookshelf. Sehun is about to put it back properly before Jongin speaks up again.

“What are you doing here? It’s like you try to avoid me whenever you see me and it’s getting kind of frustrating. I don’t think we’ve even held an entire conversation before.” Jongin accuses.

Sehun looks up at the boy with wonder at the confused tone of his voice and his furrowed eyebrows as he stares down at him.

“What do you mean?” Sehun finally responds, hoping that feigning innocence will get the kid to leave him alone, although he doesn’t really know why he wants Jongin to go.

Jongin stares at him in disbelief for a long moment, then scoffs and walks out of the library. Sehun watches him leave and can’t help but feel just a little bit guilty.

Kyungsoo figures Sehun’s act out by the end of the day. They sit in the break room of the EXO Diner while he tries to coax--or better yet, force--Sehun into talking about why he gets so flustered whenever he sees the regular customer. Sehun takes offense at Kyungsoo’s practically violent way of getting him to talk.

“Just let him talk to you at least once and maybe he’ll realize how much of a dweeb you actually are and leave you alone.” Kyungsoo proposes.

Sehun sighs and rolls around in despair from where he’s stretched out on the floor. “Who are you calling ‘dweeb’ for? And what makes you think he’ll give up if we talk?” Sehun demands, pouting.

Kyungsoo crouches down to ruffle Sehun’s hair. Sehun’s pout turns into a frown. “Hopefully the two of you will get over your crushes for each other once you become friends. It worked for me.” Kyungsoo adds blankly.

“What was that?” Sehun turns his head and asks.

“Good luck, Sehun.” Kyungsoo walks out of the room, leaving a confused Sehun behind.

_I went walking_

_Through the city_

Sehun walks home on a Friday night from his shift at the diner with no sign of Jongin or his friends. Sehun wonders if it’s alright for him to feel slightly disappointed as he trudges down the dark rain-soaked street.

_Like a drunk but not_

Sehun hums softly, watching cars zoom past him, leaving him far behind. He slows down and feels the gusts of wind that erupt from each vehicle prickling his skin. The city lights reflect onto almost every inch of the wet ground and every building Sehun passes by.

On the other side of the road, Jongin emerges from a café carrying an umbrella and his leather jacket. He looks up at the dark, cloudy sky above him and reaches his hand out, searching for any sign of rain.

_And I am_

_One of your people_

As the first few sprinkles of precipitation begin to flutter through the sky, Jongin opens his umbrella. It is only after hanging the shelter above his head that he looks across the street and spots a tired-looking Sehun lanking down the road in a t-shirt and jeans. He watches the cars carefully and crosses the road. He runs up to the other boy with concern on his face as the rain begins to pour more viciously down on the two of them.

“Sehun, wait.” Jongin calls after him. Sehun turns in surprise and lets out a sigh he didn’t know he was holding in.

“Jongin? Hi.” Sehun calmly says, or at least he thinks he’s calm. He allows Jongin to advance forward, smelling of coffee and bread and just a little bit of the stale rainwater surrounding them.

“You don’t have a jacket?” Jongin asks, reaching out to pass his own to the younger boy.

“Are you sure? It’s not that bad.” Sehun assures, just as another car drives past, knocking wind and water into the two of them. Jongin frowns at Sehun and pushes the jacket towards him again.

“Take it,” he insists. “You look like you’re freezing.” Sehun suddenly becomes conscious of his own shuddering in the frigid, stormy night air.

“Thanks.” He says quietly. Jongin moves so his umbrella covers the both of them and they begin to walk again. Sehun notes how Jongin seems to have no intention of going to his own home, or wherever he needs to be at this time of night. He shrugs it off and allows the older boy to walk him home in silence.

_But the cars don't stop_

When they arrive at his driveway, Sehun finally looks up at Jongin, only to find that the other is looking back at him with an expression that Sehun cannot read.

“Would you like to come inside? The rain hasn’t stopped yet.” Sehun asks shyly, looking anywhere but at the boy in front of him.

Jongin grins, nodding. “Lead the way.”

Jongin easily grows accustom to the comfort of Sehun’s home, if the way he stretches over Sehun’s bed as if it’s his own says anything. “You’re parents aren’t home?” He asks, suddenly finding interest in the younger’s lifestyle.

“No, they’re out of town for a while.” Sehun replies from his closet, where he’s trying to find dry clothes for himself. Jongin glances over at the younger with curiosity, not moving from the spot he has claimed on the bed. Sehun had shrugged his leather jacket off immediately as he unlocked the door and walked in, passing it to Jongin with a small “Thanks.”

“Would you like anything to drink?” Sehun tries, after finding a warm change of clothes. He eyes the smirk forming on Jongin’s face warily.

“Anything is fine.” Jongin says with a laugh, amused at both Sehun’s awkward hospitality and the similarity to the way he composes himself at the diner.

Sehun rolls his eyes and leaves to make tea for the both of them.

By ten o’clock at night, the two boys have made themselves comfortable watching odd documentaries on Sehun’s laptop, the storm outside forgotten.

It’s only halfway through a poorly-made mermaid documentary that Sehun speaks up.

“You dance, right? I saw you in the diner a while ago.”

The corners of Jongin’s lips turn up slightly. “Yeah.”

“You were great. Wait, no. I mean, it was better than what I could do. Like, I’m sure you’ve been dancing for a long time because--”

“Sehun, shut up.” Jongin laughs, flattered.

Sehun sits in silence for the rest of the documentary with a blush on his face.

Around midnight, the two are on the brink of falling asleep. Sehun lays on his side on the bed while Jongin yawns loudly, his only thoughts being of the warmth of the body next to him and sleep. As he’s about to drift off, Sehun feels an arm wrap around his waist and leans against the source of the touch with a drowsy sigh.

He might be mistaken but he could swear that he felt a pair of full lips pressed against his cheek along with a quiet “Goodnight,” as he finally succumbs to sleep.

_It's been a long time since before I've been touched_

_Now I’m getting touched all the time_

Sehun wakes up around eleven the next morning with his face extremely close to Jongin’s. As he tries to gently move the heavy arm off of him, he notices its owner begin to stir. Sehun’s breath hitches as Jongin heavily opens his eyes and stares down at him.

“Hey.” Jongin says, arm tightening around Sehun.

Sehun doesn’t respond, instead looking up at Jongin, waiting for him to realize the position and close proximity they are in, only he doesn’t. He only brings his other hand up to slide under Sehun, wrapping around him and hugging him. Sehun’s face feels as if it’s turning every shade of red when Jongin smiles and kisses him on the forehead.

“What.” Sehun blanks.

Jongin only smiles brighter.

Sehun only then realizes that he’s mirroring the same grin on his face.

_And it's only a matter of whom_

_And it's only a matter of when_

_An addiction to hands and feet_

_There's a meat market down the street_

It’s a Friday night, and the EXO Diner is packed with teenagers from the nearby high school. Sehun watches as a comfortingly familiar figure smiles at him from his table. Sehun beams back at him with a hint of red staining his cheeks under the neon lights of the diner.

After switching the “OPEN” sign in the window off, Sehun goes to the employee break room to wish Kyungsoo a good night as he carefully takes off his apron and hangs it up in exchange for a leather jacket. He walks out of the room and is greeted by a boy with a wide grin fiddling with the Diner’s jukebox. He finally chooses a song and moves toward Sehun.

He reaches for Sehun’s hands and asks for him to follow along with his steps. Together, they pick up the beat and begin to dance with smiles etched across their faces.

_The boys and girls watch each other eat_

_When they really just wanna watch each other sleep_

**Author's Note:**

> title and lyrics from "Dance Anthem of The 80s" by Regina Spektor. it prob doesn't make sense with the song but !!! i tried. :-) sorry this is very unedited and rushed bc i suck!! if you made it this far then congrats legends only.


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